Download Reviewing Word Structure and Vocabulary

Reviewing Word Structure and Vocabulary
Grades 4-6
Word Structure
At the end of every lesson and unit in Imagine It!, there is a review of the
Word Structure elements . Have the students read the words in the Word
Structure lines first. Once the line is read, have the students discuss the
structural focus. You may want to do one or more of the following activities to
review these elements:
Many of the following activities can be done in small groups. This frees you
up to provide additional practice for those students who still need some extra
work. Take time for all students to share their group efforts.
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Read a word and ask a student to find it in the line and give a definition.
Then have another student use the word in a sentence and extend it.
Read a word with a prefix or suffix and ask the students to explain the
meaning of the affix and the root.
Read a word and have students replace the prefix or suffix and tell the
meaning of the new word and the new part of speech. For example, if the
word is “disconnect”, students could change it to “reconnect” and the part
of speech stays the same. If the word is “historical” which is an adjective
and the students change the suffix to make “historian”, the word is now a
noun.
If the word is a multiple meaning word, have a student point to the word,
give one meaning, and then use the word in a sentence. Then have a
second student give another meaning and use it in a sentence.
Give two words and have a student point to them. Ask what the difference
between these two words is, e.g., hot and cold are antonyms. The same
could be done for synonyms, homonyms, and homophones. This gets the
students to use the vocabulary and do the thinking.
Give the students a word and have them come to the board or
transparency and point to the word. If it is a singular noun, have them
change it to a plural or vice versa. If it is a verb, have the students change
the tense or if it is an adjective, change it into an adverb if appropriate. In
all cases, be sure that the students spell the new word and use it in a
sentence.
Have students identify the spelling changes that occur when a suffix has
been added to a root word.
Give the students a word, have them point to and read the word, and then
give the part of speech. Have another student use the word in a sentence
and extend the sentence.
Give the student a word and have the word used in a sentence. Have the
class decide if the sentence truly shows the meaning of the word. For
example, if the word is “camouflage”, and the student says, “Animals use
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camouflage,” have the class add to the sentence to show the meaning:
“Animals use camouflage to protect themselves from predators.”
Give the students a word with a base word and ask them to point to the
word, read it, and tell the base of the word.
Give the students a word with a Greek or Latin root, have them point to
and read the word, and then have them identify the root word and its
meaning. Challenge the students to come up with other words that have
the same root word.
Give the students a word with a prefix or suffix. Have a student point to
and read the word, identify the prefix or suffix, and tell the meaning of the
affix. Then, if appropriate, have the student or a different student replace
the affix with a different one and tell the meaning of the new word.
When appropriate, give the students a word and have them give a
synonym or antonym. Work on gradations of words, for example, if the
word is hot then the opposite is cold. Gradations would be HOT, WARM,
TEPID, COOL, COLD. These kinds of activities expand vocabulary.
Give two words that are connected in some way, e.g., “colony” and
“colonial”. Have students come to the board, point to the words and read
them. Then have them tell why or how the words are connected, what the
base word is and what the affixes are. Have students explain what parts of
speech these words are.
Have students find other words that follow comparable patterns to those
taught in the lesson. If “colony, colonial, colonist” is a line in the Word
Structure, students could find related nouns and use them with affixes,
e.g., “history, historical, historian”. This challenges students to think more
about words.
Vocabulary
At the end of every lesson and unit in Imagine It!, there is a review of the
Selection Vocabulary.
In addition to the suggestions in the lesson, you may want to vary the review
and use one of the following suggestions. The goal is to get students thinking
about and using the words in different ways to deepen their understanding of the
words. Students can work in pairs or small groups to do these activities. Just be
sure students share their work.
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Have students write sentences with clues in them and then have other
students identify the vocabulary word. The sentence could include a
definition, an antonym, or synonyms. It could even be a riddle.
Have students write sentences that are examples or non-examples of the
word. For example, if the word is “shrill”, a non-example might be: “Shrill
sounds are pleasant to hear.” In contrast an example might be: “The shrill
sound hurt my ears.”
Have students make up test items: The word is “stern”. Stern means
about the same as:
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not caring about what you look or feel like
easy going about how you do something
words or actions that are very severe
Give or write sentence stems and have students complete the sentence to
show they understand the meaning of the word:
• The octopus used camouflage to . . .
• The stern comments from the principal made me . . .
Have students write sentences using the vocabulary words. Then have
them read to the class leaving out the vocabulary word and have other
students fill in the correct word.
If there are adjectives, have students write about how people feel or things
look when the adjective describes them. For example:
• How do you feel when you are bored?
• How does something look when it is magnificent?
Encourage students to think beyond the obvious. For example, if the word
is “cling” which means to stick closely to something, you can cling to a
branch to keep from falling, but you can also cling to hope when you are
feeling lost.
If the word is a noun, have students describe it; if the word is an adjective,
have students give an antonym; if the word is a verb, have students
describe what the action is; etc.
Use the following stems and have students decide which to use for their
assigned words:
• I am an antonym for ___________.
• I am a synonym for ___________ .
• I am an example of ____________.
• I am a non-example of ___________.